Budget boosts not big enough, Democrats say

Friday

Mar 28, 2008 at 12:01 AM

JEFFFERSON CITY (AP) - A $22.5 billion budget passed the House yesterday as Democrats complained that the spending increases proposed by majority Republicans for education and health care weren't large enough.

The Medicaid health-care program, public K-12 schools and colleges and universities all would get increases that meet or exceed inflation. The overall operating budget, Missouri's largest ever, would rise by almost $1 billion over the current year.

Even so, the number of poor receiving government health care would remain significantly below the levels of three years ago and state aid for higher education institutions would be less than what they were due to receive in 2002.

"It's just not enough. There's plenty more we could do," Rep. Kiki Curls, D-Kansas City, said in a refrain echoed by Democrats throughout a budget debate that spanned parts of three days.

Republicans defended the budget as a mixture of generosity and fiscal restraint. One example: the budget's nearly $3 billion in basic aid for public elementary and secondary schools, an increase of 4.3 percent over the current year.

House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet said state money for public schools has more than doubled from 1997 to the 2008 budget while student enrollment has remained virtually flat. "We are keeping our commitment to the children of this state," said Icet, R-Wildwood.

But the fact that the average teacher's salary in Missouri ranks near the bottom nationally illustrates that lawmakers still aren't doing enough, said Rep. Joe Aull, D-Marshall, a former school administrator.

"The bottom line is teachers' salaries are low because we're not giving schools enough money," Aull said.

The House budget would provide $958 million in basic aid for public colleges and universities - a more than 4 percent increase that's slightly smaller than what Gov. Matt Blunt recommended. It's also still less than the high mark of $975 million that institutions were supposed to receive in 2002, when a series of budget cuts began under Gov. Bob Holden.

Rather than boosting aid to colleges by even more, Republicans have chosen to instead expand state scholarships. The House budget proposes to spend $100 million on Access Missouri scholarships next year - a roughly fourfold increase over what was spent on financial-needs-based scholarships from four years ago.

As a result, scholarships that currently go to students from low- and middle-income families could be expanded to cover families with adjusted gross incomes of as much as $225,000 a year. Democrats failed in efforts to redirect part of that scholarship money toward colleges.

"We are making a shift in our philosophy of how we will fund higher education," Rep. Margaret Donnelly, D-St. Louis, said in opposition to the bill. "We have started to fund, in increasing amounts, scholarships, rather than giving the money directly to our public institutions."

Icet said the state's Medicaid expenses would rise by more than $300 million to greater than $6.7 billion, comprising roughly 30 percent of the state's total budget.

The budget includes more Medicaid money for nursing homes, a women's health-care initiative, rate increases to participating doctors and dentists and a significant expansion of a pilot program that allows children to receive medical treatment while their applications for enrollment in the government health-care program are pending.

"We have very generous programs," Rep. Tim Flook, R-Liberty, said in response to criticism that Republicans weren't doing enough for the poor lacking insurance.

About 170,000 fewer people are enrolled in Missouri's Medicaid program compared with spring 2005, the high point before Blunt and Republican lawmakers restricted eligibility and reduced benefits to balance the budget.

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